Winslow, Arizona: Meteor Crater

Sorry about the fellow's attitude from 10/2000 Tip - one of those who probably always expects something for nothing. My daughter and I were very impressed with the site and didn't feel the $10/person fee was out of line. I am 60 and have seen pictures of the crater all of my life never thinking that I would actually ever see it. I was excited to go see it and was not disappointed. Some see it as just a hole in the ground, but it's one heck of a hole that now tells us a whole lot about the fragility of our our planet and our own existence.

Meteor Crater was neither an iron ore nor a gold mine, but it surely holds up on its own. If nothing else, the admission price has gone up, and curious tourists still come in waves. On the other hand, any sizeable state or national park of this magnitude will charge you $10 to $20 entrance fees. Here you experience first-hand the enormity of this crater, watch a movie presentation about the formation of this crater, and tour the entire meteor crater museum -- you don't think it's just a big hole in the ground, do you?

The posting "Holbrook (west of town), AZ - Meteor Crater - Expensive Hole? " is INACCURATE. We visited 2 years ago, paid for the attraction and considered it a BARGAIN. We had planned to return again this year but lost 3 days in Tucumcari, NM broken down. We feel the contributor missed out on a nice attraction and would not want others discouraged.

While traveling to Taos, NM, earlier this month , we passed signs for this attraction. There was no indication of any cost to view the site. We assumed it was a state or federal landmark so took the turn off and subsequent 4-6 mile drive to the site. When we parked and got out we met other tourists returning to their cars, complaining about the prices for admission. We went up to the kiosk/admission gate and saw a admission charge of $10 per adult. We complained about the lack of notification of an admission charge six miles back at the interstate! The operator just laughed and said we should go ahead and pay up since we had come all the way to the site. I gave him the bird instead of the ten bucks and made a point to notify all who were arriving, about the "rip-off" being perpetuated by the local folks on us unwary travelers.

I don't know.. RA #2 says this crater is in "Leeup, AZ" (page 69, 171) but I still think of it as "east of Flagstaff, AZ" (mostly because my mapping software and GPS can't find 'Leeup'). Anyway, this is a great place to visit. Claims say that this is the most well preserved crater in the world - possibly because it's as young as 50,000 years old AND because it's surrounded by desert brush perhaps.

At any rate, it's pretty impressive. It's a huge hole in the ground caused by a iron & nickle meteor that slammed into Earth around 50,000 years ago (and a small meteor at that). One notable point is the US Government practiced moon walking in the crater during the early 60s because they thought it was the closest thing to a "moon environment" that could be found on Earth.

You have to pay to see the crater in it's full glory, but there is a genuine space capsule that you can take pictures just beyond the parking lot. If time and money are a concern skip the crater and get a picture in front of the capsule, otherwise get a picture of the capsule and see the crater!